Leadership in Leisure Services (AHSC 361) is the most experiential class offered to students majoring in Recreation and Leisure Studies at Concordia University in Montreal. One interactive feature of this required course is a multi-part assignment that deals with group facilitation, personal introspection, and evaluation. This "Assignment…

In a university context, peer assisted learning (PAL) refers to students supporting the learning of other students. While PAL is used extensively in health and medical sciences fields to enhance student learning, there are few examples of how it has been incorporated within recreation education contexts. The purpose of this study was to examine…

Although students in the broad field of leisure studies may pursue a variety of opportunities post-graduation, employment within local parks and recreation represents one potential career path. Unfortunately, the Great Recession disproportionately impacted local parks and recreation relative to competing public services. As such, this article…

Diversity courses are integral to higher leisure education curricula and united by the following assumptions: (a) recreation programs involve encounters with "different" groups of people and (b) future professionals require a specialized set of knowledge and skills in order to manage those interactions. Although several scholars have…

Navigating the roles and responsibilities of graduate work is a complex, and often confusing business of workflows, labor (emotional and physical), and moving in several different directions. As graduate students, we find solace and compassion in the words and (mostly) shared experiences of our colleagues, and challenges in the desires,…

A signature pedagogy for the recreation field is proposed through a review of the field's scholarship on teaching and learning. A signature pedagogy is identified as the, "defining characteristics that, when explicated, reveal the deepest beliefs and practices of professional apprenticeship." (Gurung, Chick, Haynie, 2009, p. xv). A…

Many recreation and leisure professionals are looking for opportunities to upgrade their skills and knowledge in the context of their work. For some professionals that involves returning to post-secondary education. Yet, most undergraduate degree programs are designed in formats for students who are assumed to have little prior professional…

The third edition of "A Career with Meaning" offers new perspectives on the field and updates on trends and research related to each career area. Of note is the renewed emphasis in our field and thus on understanding the role recreation and leisure play in promoting health and wellness, sustainability, and social justice. The book uses…

This article describes the Faculty Cooperative Curricular Activities (FCCA) model developed and implemented in the Recreation Management program at Appalachian State University. FCCA's are experiential learning activities or assignments in two or more separate courses where the assignment is shared to build upon a common construct/concept. These…

In the recreation and leisure field, educators often strive to attain a level of experiential learning in the classroom. As we prepare students for the future, it is unlikely that they will be placed in a quiet room and asked to take an objective test. It is more likely that they will be asked to defend their ideas, collaborate in decision making,…

More than a million international students studied at U.S. colleges and universities in 2016-2017 (Open Doors Report, 2017), bringing close to 39 billion dollars into the U.S. economy (U.S. Department of Commerce, 2017). Previous research reveals that international students often face significant obstacles in their adjustment with the U.S.…

The goal of many universities is to prepare students for professional careers, especially in the applied field of recreation, leisure, and sport (Smith, O'Dell, & Schaumleffel, 2002). While some universities continue to use traditional knowledge-transfer methods to accomplish this goal, others have developed service engagement projects that…

The complex and uncertain academic job search is often a terrifying prospect for aspiring recreation and leisure scholars. New doctoral candidates are eager for meaningful lived experiences and useful advice regarding the steps for a successful job search, including finding the right opportunities, submitting applications, interviewing well, and…

Noting that our field is minimally relevant to the multitude of ways the American public is engaged in leisure and recreation, Samdahl delves into our history in attempt to understand how this came about. She notes that the recreation movement as canonized in our textbooks ignores parallel efforts that led to community theaters, libraries, and…

In this paper, the academic afterlife of a purposive sample of 12 recreation, park, and leisure studies educators from a variety of universities throughout the United States and Canada is discussed. The paper begins with a brief review of the literature on successful aging. That literature's insights are then applied to the lived experiences of…